Wonders of
technology no matter how long they have been in existence, don’t fail to amaze
us. The Chinese especially have really done a great job in building spectacular
bridges which has broken and set records in the world.
In 2011,
China unveiled the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge which snatched the record of the world’s
longest bridge from the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge (23.87mi/38.4km) with
a length of 42.5km (26.4mi). The bridge links Chinese port city of Qingdao to
the offshore island Huangdao.
The bridge which cost £960 million to build is 110ft
(33.5m) wide. 10,000 Chinese workers worked on the bridge and it took four
years to complete the bridge. The bridge is supported by more than 5000
pillars.
The bridge can withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 and
the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel. The bridge is also able to carry over
30,000 cars daily. Moving at a constant speed of 80km/h will see you spend more than 30 minutes on this bridge. Of the top six longest road bridges over water in the world,
four of them are in China.
And China is not relenting as it was revealed at the opening
of the Jiaozhou Bridge that it has commenced work on another bridge that will
cost £6.5bn
to complete and will be almost 30 miles (48km) long. The bridge will connect Guangdong
province with Hong Kong and Macau.
It must be noted however that this is only the longest road
bridge over water. The longest road bridge over land is the Bang Na Expressway
in Thailand which is 55km (34.2mi) long. The longest bridge in the world is a
rail bridge which is the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge and is 102 miles (164.2km).
See pictures of the spectacle below:
Posts
Facts and Pictures: World’s longest road bridge on water